A Walled Lake Police Department detective swore to a warrant Tuesday morning charging Alex Jay Adamowicz, 21, with open murder. Adamowicz is held without bond and is scheduled to appear for a pre-exam conference Wednesday morning at 52-1 District Court in Novi.

Detectives said Adamowicz and the victim, John Watson, engaged in a “verbal altercation,” during which Adamowicz stabbed John Watson in the neck.

“(Adamowicz) had tried to conceal the body by wrapping it up in cellophane in an attempt to bury that individual,” Walled Lake Police Det. Anthony Noble told 52-1 District Magistrate Charles Cooper.

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Adamowicz put the body in a closet in his apartment, where it stayed for approximately two to three weeks, investigators believe. He was taken into custody Sunday, when his mother — visiting for Mother’s Day — sensed something was wrong and convinced her son to turn himself in.

Neighbors had been complaining of a foul smell inside the building, and an exterior door was propped open in an attempt to combat the odor.

Watson’s sister and niece, who were in the courtroom for Adamowicz’s arraignment, said Watson did nothing to deserve this fate.

“My uncle was one of those people — just a down-to-his-heart good person, almost like a child,” Christian Watson said.

“He didn’t like the ugly of the world and he made that very clear. He liked peace. He was a be-and-let-be kind of guy.”

John Watson loved animals and children and was “buds” with Christian Watson’s youngest son.

“He’s going to be missed by us for sure,” she said.

As for now, the family is struggling through a difficult time.

“It’s like being in a movie that doesn’t end in two hours,” Christian Watson said.

“I hope that if (Adamowicz) is indeed the person (who killed Watson) … that he pays the price for what he has done, and hopefully inside of him he feels remorse and gets to deal with some of the suffering that we get to deal with for the rest of our lives.”

Michele Watson — John Watson’s older sister — was also present. She first learned of the incident through a television report, which prompted her to call authorities, who said they were confident that it was her brother who was killed.

“Obviously it’s totally disgusting, and I can hardly fathom the picture of it all,” she said.

“Part of me feels sorry for the mother that showed up there on Mother’s Day.”

Michele Watson said she had been looking for her brother toward the beginning of April and believes he may have been killed the following week while she was on vacation in Florida.

“I felt some guilt for not filing a police report for him missing, but I didn’t really know that he was, in fact, missing,” she said.

“If I had (filed a report), (Adamowicz) may have ran or took off and we may not have him in custody, so I have some solace in that fact.”

John Watson worked at a restaurant in Walled Lake.

“My brother was a real hard worker,” Michele Watson said.

“He had a difficult life but he did love people. Most of the people in the family have told me that the last time he spoke to them, he told them he loved them and gave them hugs. That was unlike John. We all knew he cared, but he had trouble showing that, and he had displayed love and care to all his family recently, so we have that to remember him by.”